27 June 2012

The Imperial Sociopath and Hypocrisy

A Sociopath believes
the rules don't apply to him. He is above the standards that other people
have to follow.

A sociopath is blind to his own shortcomings.
He often critiques others for violating rules that he will violate with
abandon. He is either completely blind to his own crimes or in every case makes
an excuse, finds a justification for them.

He has no conscience
and when someone critiques him...he lashes out in self-righteous indignation.

Psychology of course is
often nothing more than Secularism's attempt to deal with guilt. A bankrupt
system, it sometimes can be helpful in analyzing the dynamics of the mind, but
can never provide solutions that accord with Christian theology. Lacking a
doctrine of sin, it can diagnose the Sociopath, but it cannot recognize these
people are under Judgment...on the road to reprobation. No longer merely
suppressing the consciences, they have seared them and have come perilously
close to eradicating the remnants of the Imago Dei within them. The Image of
God is key to our human-ness, having a conscience and ability to grasp
metaphysical categories like ethics distinguish us from the beasts of the
field.

The Sociopath is but a
hair's breadth from the status of Beast...no longer retaining the conscience
and the ability to grasp anything other than their own appetites.

Our narcissistic
consumerist culture generates Sociopaths... Reprobates. Though this is not in
accord with the Christo-American narrative, I would suggest it actually makes
perfect sense. Individualism has been such a key component to our psyche, that
it is no great shock that Pelagian theology fit right in with our
culture...telling us that we were good, and when we weren't, we could remedy
ourselves. The power was within us. We made idols of ourselves. This is just my
opinion of course, but as every fallen society has the Bestial Imperial
tendency when given the opportunity, our American context was certain to give
it a certain character.

Exporting American
Values:

In the American
narrative, the United States stands for worldwide freedom and certain values
like Democracy and Tolerance, Transparency and Self-Determination, Human Rights
and Justice. To many America's anointed task (either by world consensus or God
Himself) is to lead the world. Empire is not a popular term because of its
historical connotations, but that is clearly the idea. Euphemisms are employed
referring to 'interests' and 'spheres of influence,' basically referring to
geo-political realms that the United States has a right to shape and control.

The notion of planting
a flag on a statehouse is antiquarian and only political in scope. The complex
modern world means there is much more to controlling a country than mere
politics. The same is true on our own shores. The President is a political
figure and not insignificant, but there are many other players in the American
Power Structure and at times far more powerful than a President, especially one
who has lost his political capital and mandate. We're seeing something of that
at present with Barack Obama.

America has proven to
be an Empire like no other. It tries to mask its Imperial control and
mechanisms and emphatically denies being an Empire. It hides behind these
idealistic terms and employs them as a cover for what's it doing.

Our corporate driven
propaganda machine is so powerful the majority of American citizens don't
realize that this 'Superpower' is perhaps the most powerful Imperial structure
in the history of the world. Dispensationalists run around looking for the One
World Empire of the future Beast that dominates the World and promotes a false
One World Religion. Aside from the errors of this theology they (perhaps worst
of all) all completely blind to the fact that they live in such an Empire and do
all they can to actively promote it. This has been the case at least since the
end of World War II and unabashedly so since the late 1980's. Will this stay
the same indefinitely? Of course not. But if you were ever looking for a
fulfillment of the Beast-Babylon imagery of the Apocalypse, the United States
as much if not more than any other Empire fits the description. I don't view
the Mark of the Beast as a barcode or microchip, but if anyone bears it it's
the Christo-American Evangelical.

Much of the rest of the
world see this...not the Apocalyptic parallels, but the reality of American
power and its true nature. Many are happy to work with the Empire. Many
begrudgingly admire it. Many are baffled by it. Increasingly many are coming to
despise it. Because the reality is for all the talk of these great universal
values America represents, the chief value it exports and undoubtedly the most
repugnant is: Hypocrisy.

3 comments:

Not even that, just more honest and brutal. Our Imperial predecessors, Athens and Rome, were very reluctant to ever drop flags.

Athens made city-states enter into a "mutual defense league" with an "upkeep fee" to pay for the "pan-hellenic" navy, which was built, manned and controlled by Athens. Why? Because Athens could bear the burden, had the credentials and was the "necessary power" to check the Persians and other barbarians.

Rome would sign defense treaties to look out for nations. Just let our, in essence, venture capitalists come have a look at your markets and let us post a garrison for your protection.

All I was saying was the Federal Vision and Patriarchy don't necessarily go together. Some of the biggest names in Patriarchy consider FV to be heresy. They're separate issues. FV can go nicely with Patriarchy but not necessarily.

I dont know why the comments arent working. Ill try and get that fixed.

I dont like patriarchy, i think it tends to overdo a mans family and can make an idol of proper family life. Not necessarily, and there are good families under this model, and it is a broad description.

My main issue was federal vision and i used it as a adjective to describe a type of patriarchy. I dont think patriarchy is the biblical model of family, but it is not the heresy that federal vision is.